RECORDS OF MALAY MAGIC. 59 
16 
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Chinchang pémpas, bunoh halas. 
For a wound the price of it in blood, 
For a murder a life. 
The blood to be spilt in compensation for a wound inflicted, 
might be that of a fowl, a goat or a buffalo, according to the 
more or less serious nature of it; also according to the means 
of the culprit and the power of the offended party to exact pay- 
ment; in any case the animal or some part of it would go to 
provide a feast of reconciliation. 
The life to be paid for a murder rarely meant amongst 
Malays that the murderer was necessarily executed; it was 
more often the adoption by the family of the murdered person 
of a member of the murderer’s family, or it was a slave passed 
over by them in compensation for the loss in curred. As I have 
already pointed out the compensation to the Waris or Bid- 
wanda tribe was heavier than that paid for the death of a mem- 
ber of what may be termed a tribe of immigrants. When I 
first came to Rembou some very old debts were sued for in my 
Court, in the hopes that the white man would be strong enough 
to exact payment where the native chief had failed; on investi- 
gation some of these proved to be judgements inflicted for 
assaults and even murder or man slaughter. 
In Rembau for the death of a Bidwanda, or Waris the 
life penalty was exacted; but for the death of a tribesman the 
penalty was a buffalo, 50 gantongs of rice and ‘ wang dua 
bhara”’ (i. e. $28-40): the money to be divided amongst the 
relatives of the murdered man, and the buffalo and rice to pro- 
vide a feast to reconcile the tribes of the murderer and his 
victim. 
